The Storm Runner (The Storm Runner 1)

Brooks let out a slow breath. “Dreams, talents…love.”

“How’re those things magic?” Hondo loosened his tie.

“In our world, they aren’t so easy to come by,” Brooks said. “Which makes them magic.”

“Hang on,” I said. “Are you telling me people actually give up their talents?”

She nodded, suddenly looking miserable. “Say you’re really good at wrestling.” She glanced at Hondo to make her point. “You trade it for something else you want.”

“But what if the thing you want is the thing you’re good at?” I asked. “Like the singer.”

“You get the favor as a loan.” Brooks paused and glanced sideways for a moment. “Then, when the twins call it in…”

“Bye-bye talent?” Hondo guessed.

“Yup. Or whatever it is you’ve traded.”

Okay, so that was twisted.

To our right was a huge pool with a waterfall cascading over massive boulders. Waiters in skeleton masks and black polo shirts and shorts carried colorful drinks with little umbrellas or offered finger foods and fancy cocktail napkins.

“I’m starving.” Hondo grabbed a skewered shrimp off a passing tray and grinned ear to ear. “I think I’m going to like it here.”

“Don’t eat anything, Hondo,” Brooks said. “This is not a good place to linger. Let’s just get in and get out.”

Then came a deep voice, “What’s your rush?”

Brooks went stone still.

I turned and I knew. It was one of the twins. The guy seemed about sixteen, was at least six five, and had biceps even bigger than Hondo’s. Actually, he was almost as sculpted as his statue and maybe fiercer-looking.

He winked at Brooks, hooked his arm over her shoulder, and said, “Hello, little sister.”

25

Brooks pushed the guy away from her. “Back off, Jordan.”

Before he could take a bite of his shrimp-on-a-stick, Hondo dropped it. “You’re his sister?”

No way could Brooks have left that massive detail out of all our conversations about these guys!

Jordan smiled. “By marriage.”

Brooks gave him a murderous glare. “Not yet.”

“Your sister will come to her senses, Brooks,” Jordan said bitterly. Then, with a shrug, he added, “She doesn’t have a choice.” He gave a fake sigh. “So, you like the new place? I designed it myself.”

Brooks had a sister? Then I remembered what she’d told my mom, that she was looking for the only family she had left. Was that who she’d been talking about?

A glass shattered nearby, people laughed.

Jordan leaned closer to Brooks and said casually, “I thought you weren’t coming back. Isn’t that what you said, little sister?”

Brooks shrugged him off her.

My mind was hurtling like a comet, ready to burn up in three, two, one…

Jordan asked, “Who are your friends?”